His next thought was that she was slumped over like a ragdoll, not moving.
"Hannah?" he mumbled, trying to shake off the confusion and lethargy settling in on him like a weight. "Hannah!"
As gently as he could, he reached out for her shoulders. The pain along his right side, near the middle of his ribcage, was pure agony, but he ignored it, pulling her as carefully as he could up and against his shoulder. With his fingertips, he first felt for a pulse, nearly sagging in relief when he found it. Then he moved them up. Near her temple he felt something thick and wet and he knew she was bleeding. Not bad, but some, and it didn't take long to locate the knot and cut on her forehead. He needed the first aide supplies. And everything else he'd put in the tool chest.
The sleeping bag he'd thrown in the cab would help, but he needed the other one to try and block some of the wind that was blasting snow all over them. Bad enough to be stuck in a ditch in a blizzard, but their chances of surviving this were less than zero if he couldn't rig something up. It wouldn't take long to freeze to death in these conditions. He and Martin would have to-
He tried to turn around to see Martin, even though the cab was dark. The only thing he saw were shadows, mostly the branch. He didn't hear any sound, and his breath caught because Martin had been sitting in the seat behind Hannah.
~~~~~
For all his brave talk about handling any driving conditions, Ed was glad he'd opted to buy another SUV. No way could he have gotten a car out of town, much less anywhere beyond that. As it was, Lansing had been an absolute nightmare. Every intersection between the capital and Eaton Rapids was slick and dangerous, and it had never taken him so long to travel eighteen miles.
He knew the county workers couldn't just let the snow pile up, but why they had to try and plow down to the concrete was beyond him. It made driving even more hazardous because what was left quickly turned into ice – and they couldn’t salt or sand it since it would just blow away. So what should have taken maybe half an hour took closer to two, and he was still about seven miles from Perkey Road. If they turned south – and were still there – that stretch of highway meant another four or five miles of driving.
And he knew they were still out here somewhere. Before he lost the signal about three miles from his destination, he'd yet to have gotten a call from any of the guys letting him know that they were home safe. And he knew Jon well enough to know that he'd keep driving up and down that road until he found him.
~~~~~
She was dreaming. Or dead. Because no one could be as cold as she was and not have it be one or the other of those things. Her head hurt, too. A lot. Vague visions of snow, and a humungous tree limb played on the backs of her eyelids like a movie, and she figured dead was the correct choice. Corpses were cold and stiff, and she was most definitely freezing. She just hadn't realized that dead people could still think and reason, and she wasn't sure she liked that thought. She also hadn't known that they could still feel pain, and she really wished she couldn't.
"Hannah? Come on, sweetheart, open your eyes. You need to help me here."
Jon died, too? She didn’t like to think of him not being in the world. Not that she wanted to be gone from it overly much, but Jon was sweet and good, and he didn't deserve to lose his life like this. Not when he'd been trying to save her father.
"Hannah, please! Wake up or we're going to freeze to death."
"Already dead," she mumbled, and heard him laugh softly.
"No, I promise you're not dead. Not yet. And you won't be if you'll just wake up a little more and help me. We have to check Martin. I can't get to him from here, and I think he's hurt. We need to get a sleeping bag over the window, too. If we don't stop some of the air from getting in here, we're going to be in big trouble."
Okay, so she was still alive, and really relieved to know it. Martin was hurt though, and Jon needed her help. That being the case, she tried to open her eyes, but they didn't seem to want to cooperate. After a few moments she won the battle, though she was kind of sorry. Being inside a truck and also being snowed on – in the dark – was very disorienting.
"What happened?" she tried to ask, but had to clear her throat and repeat the question before he heard her.
"You mean the whole being run off the road, and you being nearly decapitated thing? Or what's happened since?"
"What's happened since?" She remembered everything else, and kind of wished she didn't. It had been one of the most terrifying moments of her life.
"Not much. It's only been about five minutes. But I didn't want to get out of the truck before I knew you were okay."
"Get out of the truck!" She didn't think anything else would have shaken her out of the fog quite as fast as that statement. Just the thought of being out here alone – without Jon – was enough to send her into a full-fledged panic. What if he got lost and couldn't find his way back? "Why would you do something so foolish?"
"Hey, Hannah, it's all right. Calm down. First, I really need to check on Martin. He was sitting right behind you."
"Oh no!" She tried to twist around to look, but Jon was holding her, so she couldn't.
"You can't see him from here. Just stay put. I'm going to see how he's doing, and then I need to clear the snow from the tail pipe so I can turn the truck on for heat. Thank God for the grille guard or the radiator would be toast – and then we really would freeze to death. I also need to make sure the flashers can be seen even if they're snow covered because I'm only doing that once every hour when I check the exhaust. And then I need to get the other sleeping bag and emergency supplies out of the back. I won't be long."
As much as she hated to let him out, she let go of his coat, her heart sinking when he opened the door. In seconds he was opening the back door, groaning when he climbed inside and closing it behind him. He continued to grunt as he slid across the seat.
"Thank God. He still has his head." He was silent for a moment. "He's still breathing but- Oh no," he whispered.
"What?" She didn't think she wanted to know what was wrong.
"I can't move him. There seems to be a smaller limb through his shoulder. It's pinning him to the back of the seat." Just the thought of what that must have felt like made her stomach start to churn.
"What are we going to do?"
"I don't know." She heard him murmuring to himself, the whispers sounding downright panicked. "I don't know. We can't pull it out because that could make it worse. We'll have to sit back here with him, try to keep him warm until help comes." He was quiet again. "I can't find my phone. Where is yours?"
"In my purse." She felt around the seat for her purse, but it wasn't there. "I don't know. On the floor probably."
"Can you get to the glove box? I put the flashlights in there."
She tried, but there couldn't get past the big branch blocking her way.
"No. Let me try to lie down and see if I can get under this."
"Never mind. Can you crawl over the seat and sit beside Martin? I'll just come around after I clear the lights and get the stuff out of the tool box."
"You won't be going in the road, will you?" Hannah asked, her voice rising at the thought. She knew she needed to get a grip, but she just couldn't bear the thought of anything happening to him.
"I'm going to have to. I won't go far though. But I have to do it because if anyone else is stupid enough to be driving down this road, I'm hoping they'll see them and rescue us."
"Be careful. Please."
"I will." She felt him press his lips against her hair. "You stay awake. I'm pretty sure you have a concussion, and between that and the cold, I'm a little worried."
"I thought you weren't going to be gone long. At least not long enough for me to doze off."
"I'll be a few minutes. That's all. I promise."
When he got out, slamming the door behind him, she did as he'd asked, climbing over the seat to sit beside Martin. He didn’t move so much as a muscle when she landed
next to him and, hesitantly, she felt for a pulse in his neck. It was a little slow, but still very steady.
~~~~~
By the time Jon finished everything he needed to do, including making sure the back end of the truck wasn't in the middle of the road – not that there was much he could do about if it had been – his jeans felt like blocks of ice around his legs, and his ribs were burning like mad. He figured he'd at least fractured them, and wondered why the air bags hadn't deployed. He knew they wouldn't have done so when the stalker hit them from behind, but when they hit the tree, both of them should have. A brand new truck and one of the safety devices was defective? If he lived through this, he was lodging a complaint somewhere.
When he got back in the truck, in the front seat, he shoved the sleeping bag back to Hannah, and jammed the two duffel bags he'd retrieved on the dash. He'd managed to find her purse, and her phone, but there was only one bar and he couldn't get a call out, not even to nine-one-one. Hopefully the signal would get better.
"I'm not turning the truck on until we get some of this cold air blocked. Can you try to get that bag in the back window and maybe use part of it to cover Martin? I'll try to get one of the blankets wedged in up here. We should be able to block a lot of the wind and snow with them, and then we'll get some heat in here for a few minutes. I've also got snacks, and candles that probably won't help warm us up at all, but they're better than nothing."
He hadn't meant to, but when he reached out to work the blanket around the branch, the pain was excruciating and he couldn't hold back a groan.
"What's wrong?" Hannah demanded.
"I think I might have broken a rib or two, but I'm fine. Just let's get this done so I can get back there."
"Jon! Oh my gosh. We need to get you to a hospital. We need to get you both to a hospital."
"Unless you have a genie in your pocket, that's not going to happen any time soon. I checked your phone while I was out there, and we're not getting enough of a signal to make a call. But Dan knows we're out here. If he doesn't hear from us fairly soon, he's going to be sending out the Calvary. He knows exactly where we're supposed to be, and the roads we traveled to get here. We'll be fine. We just need to stay as warm as we can until help arrives."
"That could take all night. You know all the emergency personnel are going to be dealing with whatever is happening on the main roads."
"Then we'll stay as warm as we can all night then. We're not going to die out here, Hannah. None of us are going to die tonight."
He hoped. Because she was right. Who knew how long it would take to get anyone out this far to help them? People never bothered to slow down enough, and there would be accidents all over the county. Country roads were always low on the priority list for everything.
~~~~~
"If shivering is supposed to help keep you warm, it's not working very well tonight," Hannah said, her teeth chattering so hard her voice sounded funny.
More than two hours they'd been stranded here, and the temperatures were dropping steadily. The last weather report they'd heard, the last time Jon had gotten out to clear the tail pipe, said the actual temperature was zero on the nose, but that the wind chill was closer to twenty below.
They'd managed to drape the second sleeping bag over the limb, and stuff the two blankets around the holes it made in the windows, but with the wind so strong, the cold still poured in, and even the heater going full blast – for fifteen minutes the last time – hadn't made much difference. They used the other sleeping bag as best they could, but it was a one-person bag, so it wasn't much bigger than a twin-sized comforter would be, and they were trying to keep all three of them covered with it.
The last time Jon reached across her to check Martin's pulse, he said it was getting weaker, and he'd still not regained consciousness. And she didn't want to say it, but she was quickly losing strength – and the will to stay awake. It seemed unlikely that they would survive the night, so maybe if they stopped fighting, gave in and fell asleep, meeting their maker might not be quite so miserable.
"When we get home, you can have the first shower. Just save me some hot water, okay?"
"Yeah, sure." Home. Her home, his home, it didn't matter which one. A hot shower sounded like heaven on earth.
"We'll get there, Hannah. Someone will come for us."
"Of course they will." She let the sentence drift off and closed her eyes, settling closer against Jon's side. When she heard his hiss, she eased back. "I'm sorry. I forgot."
"It's all right. I like having you close."
"Me, too." And she did. He was the best friend she'd ever had. If she were going to leave this world before morning, she couldn’t imagine anyone she'd rather be with.
"I – love you, Hannah." Her breath caught in her throat at the words she was sure she couldn't have heard correctly. Not from Jon. "I've been in love with you for weeks, but I wouldn't admit it to myself. Not until now."
"I love you, too," she whispered, then wondered if he'd heard her. When she his arms tighten around her, she thought he must have.
"I've never said that to another woman before."
"I've never really loved anyone like I love you."
"I wish we'd talked about this before." Before, when they would have had more than a few hours – if that – to enjoy the knowledge. "I'm going to go clear the tail pipe again."
"All right."
She didn't want to let him go, but recognized that he was getting weaker, too, and that this was probably his last ditch effort to save them.
She felt his hand under her chin, felt him raise her face to his, and felt his cold lips caress hers. And then she felt a blast of cold air in the truck as someone whipped the door open.
"Figures. I'm out here risking my life to find the two of you and here you are, necking like a couple of teenagers." Never had anyone's voice been so welcome as Ed's in that moment. "Come on. Let's get you out of here. I'm pretty sure no one else is stupid enough to be out tonight, but I'm parked somewhere in the middle of the road. We need to get moving before I get stuck."
~~~~~
Jon could only be grateful he carried a little bit of everything in the tool chest, and that a bow saw was one of those things, because getting Martin out of the truck proved to be a challenge. Fortunately, he didn't come to throughout the ordeal, only groaned a few times as Ed sawed through both ends of the branch impaling him to the seat. Getting him out of the backseat was something Ed had to do on his own, and he also supported most of Martin's weight getting him up and out of the ditch. Hannah had wanted to help, but they'd both insisted she get in the front seat of Ed's SUV where she could take advantage of the heat.
"You doing okay?" Ed asked, as they finally reached the road, knee deep snow hindering their progress.
"Never been better." And it was true. He was exhausted, he was freezing, and the pain in his side was almost more than he could bear, but they were going to be all right. Most important of all though, at least as far as he was concerned, Hannah loved him.
"Where are we going, Jon? Cal and Darby are just a few miles away, but we can try to get to the hospital in Eaton Rapids." Ed was leaving the choice up to him. Great.
With part of the branch still in Martin's shoulder, Jon really wanted to tell him to try for the hospital. But he couldn't help worrying what would happen if they wound up in another ditch, and so he told Ed to just head for the O'Hara's house. Ed's phone was still getting a signal so he could call for an ambulance as soon as he got in the backseat. It would certainly be more comfortable there than it had been in the truck.
~~~~~
"Thank God," Dan said, ready to burst into tears like a little girl when he heard Jon's voice on the other end of the line,
He sounded cold, and his words were shaky as he gave an abbreviated explanation of what happened, but Dan had never been so glad to hear from anyone in his life. He promised to call Cal and Darby to let them know they were going to be
heading there, and let he'd the other guys know where they'd be. It was closer than anywhere else they could go and Ed wanted to get them somewhere warm as quickly as possible.
"So, I'll make those calls right now. And I'll meet you at the hospital tomorrow. Love you, Jon."
"Love you, too."
"What happened? Why is he going to the hospital?" Jess asked, snuggled against his side. They'd been sitting in the living room, staring out the window for what felt like forever.
"Because it seems the stalker ran them off the road. He probably has some broken ribs, Hannah may have a concussion, and Martin is hurt bad," he explained, dialing Cal's number. When he answered on the first ring, he said, "They're safe. Ed's bringing them all to your house. Cal, they're freezing."
"We'll get some baths started in a few minutes then."
"Good. I'll let Ed explain everything. I need to let Sam and Chris know. Call me when they get there, okay?"
"Will do."
"They could have died out there," Jess murmured after he'd gotten hold of his friends, who were every bit as relieved as he was. "The stalker knew that."
"I know. That scares me even more than just thinking they were stuck somewhere. He knew the second he ran them off the road that the odds were better than good that they weren't going to make it out alive."
"Do you think he'll try to kill us, too?"
"I don't know. Ed's kept his distance from us, Sam and Holly, and Chris and Harry since Jenna was taken. Heck, he's been trying to keep his distance from her, too, but she won't let him."
"Do you think it's just because we all have kids?"
"I expect so. That's why Jon's been hanging out with him more, and why he's probably a target now, too. This guy wants to take everything from Ed. And since Jon is going out of his way to involve himself in his life even more, it must be ticking him off."
Her Best Friend Jon Page 16